


reach for the stars

by leadlight



Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: Gen, Harry Potter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leadlight/pseuds/leadlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seunghyun learns how to fly. (Harry Potter au)</p>
            </blockquote>





	reach for the stars

People expect Seunghyun to be afraid of flying because of some related childhood trauma: maybe he took a fall off daddy’s broom (false, because Seunghyun’s Muggle father only ever used brooms for non-magical purposes), or perhaps he suffered from airplane sickness (also false, because Seunghyun quite liked it the one time he rode a plane, from the free pillow to the foil-wrapped meal that came on a tray).

In reality, it’s a lot less complicated. Seunghyun just doesn’t like heights.

He wouldn’t even call it a ‘phobia’. Seunghyun can stand on balconies and bridges fine. The difference is that in these scenarios, there are barriers between him and the ground forty feet below. When those barriers are reduced to a bunch of twigs and his own hand-eye coordination (dubious at the best of times), he thinks it’s perfectly normal that he gets mildly terrified.

Youngbae, however, doesn’t seem to view it the same way.

“You can borrow one of the school brooms, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he says, when Seunghyun declines an opportunity to play a casual game of Quidditch one weekend with him and Jiyong.

“No, it’s not that, I just, I don’t like brooms very much, you know.”

“You don’t like brooms?” Youngbae says, in much the same way that he might say, _you hugged a Blast-Ended Skrewt?_

“Well, I just—I’m—I’m a bit scared of the whole flying thing, to be honest." And Seunghyun feels so very small, like he always does when he ends up admitting this to others. Only it’s worse this time, because so far he genuinely likes Jiyong and Youngbae, and he wants to hang out with them, he really does.

“That’s okay, it’s not like you’ve got to be able to fly,” says Jiyong, and Seunghyun still can’t quite meet his eyes, but he does feel somewhat soothed.

“That’s not okay, he’s letting his fear get in the way of experiencing the best sport in the world. You need to conquer the fear, hyung,” Youngbae says passionately, and Seunghyun thinks, _bloody Gryffindors, always think they know best_.

“Seeing as I never made it off the ground when we had flying lessons in first year, I’m not going to be conquering anything anytime soon,” Seunghyun replies, trying to sound careless.

“Hey, I could help you! I could teach you how to fly properly, build up your confidence.” Youngbae’s face is shining with zeal. Seunghyun feels his stomach drop.

“Uh, I’m not so sure that’s a great—”

“He is a pretty good teacher, you know,” Jiyong says with an amused grin. “More patient than me, anyway.”

“Not doubting his teaching abilities, just doubting that I—”

“Ah, come on. Don’t tell me you never even imagined what it might be like to fly?”

Seunghyun hesitates, and Youngbae looks triumphant.

 _Bloody Gryffindors_.

 

The thing is, Seunghyun actually envies those who can fly. Out of the web of fantasies that drift through his head late at night in bed, a recurring one is that of him soaring over the castle grounds, swooping gracefully as he scores a Quidditch goal, a star player.

But that’s all it is, a mere fantasy, and Seunghyun feels the bleak truth of that as he eyes the broom in front of him with apprehension. There’s a reason, he thinks, why humans were made with no wings, or any other sort of aerial appendage.

Once again, Youngbae appears to disagree. “The first thing you’ve got to remember, hyung, is to treat the broom like it’s an extension of you.”

He’s literally bouncing on his toes, and Seunghyun can’t help but be envious of the other boy’s energy. Thoughts of the approaching lesson had kept him awake the previous night, and as a result he feels sluggish and on edge all at once.

“We’ll start with the basics, like how to sit on the broom and your grip, and we’ll just go from there, okay?” Youngbae squints up at the sky. “Great day for flying, barely any wind, so hopefully we’ll get you doing loop the loops before long.” Seunghyun tries to ignore the spike of nausea at those words.

After several frustrating tries, Seunghyun finally gets the broom to jump up into his hand (albeit rather uncertainly), and then Youngbae spends a bit of time correcting his grip. Seunghyun has to admit that Youngbae is a good teacher, both patient and encouraging. He’s just not sure that he’s even a halfway decent student.

“Okay—try it once more… no, needs to be a bit stronger than that. There, that was better already, but we need to get you higher than a foot off the ground. Brace your feet a bit more before you kick off, and—now! Keep going, keep going!”

Youngbae is shouting into his ear, looking ecstatic as Seunghyun rises up, up, up; the sky wide above him—he’s actually doing this—

Then Seunghyun makes the mistake of looking down, and instantly breaks out into a cold sweat.

“Youngbae…I have to get back down. How—” Seunghyun chokes a little on his breath as he wrenches his gaze up, away, anywhere but the dizzying view below. “Tell me how to get down.”

“Oh come on, hyung, you’re doing fine! We’re barely ten feet up!” Youngbae’s swooping in circles around him, which does nothing to help the waves of vertigo washing over Seunghyun.

“Just _get me down, Youngbae!_ ” Seunghyun’s knuckles are going white against his broom, and this might be what they call a panic attack, he thinks through his haze of terror. Youngbae seems to think so too, because he’s suddenly next to him and clutching his arm. “Hey, calm down, it’s okay—we’ll start going down now. Just point the handle down, that’s the way, see, we’re almost there, see?”

“We are _not_ almost there, there’s still—oh, Merlin,” half-sobs Seunghyun when he looks down again at the tree-tops beneath them. A crow flaps up from one of the taller trees, and when it makes directly for him, the thought _even the birds know I shouldn’t be here_ crosses his mind, before it’s overtaken by blind and utter panic.

He screams all the way down like a boy whose voice just broke, clinging to Youngbae for dear life, the two of them half on and half off their brooms from the strength of Seunghyun’s grip. Their brooms—or rather, Youngbae’s broom, since Seunghyun is pretty sure his own stopped listening to his long ago—stop abruptly a few feet above the ground. The force of it makes them tumble onto the grass, and on top of each other.

They lie there panting for a few moments, Seunghyun gradually recovering the scattered pieces of his mind to realize he’s still alive, when a faintly shocked voice floats over. “Seunghyun? Y-Youngbae?”

Two heads swivel upwards to see Dara standing nearby, a startled look on her delicate face, just as Seunghyun realizes what this must look like. Youngbae seems to realize it at the same moment, because he shoves Seunghyun off him roughly and bolts upright, his face beet-red.

“Uh, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt, carry on please, I mean—” Dara is already turning around as she babbles.

“Wait—Dara—it’s not—that wasn’t—” Youngbae is babbling too, but a lot less coherently, Seunghyun notes.

But she’s already gone, and Seunghyun can almost taste the awkwardness in the air.

 

“How did it go?” Jiyong asks curiously, looking up from his Transfiguration homework as Seunghyun and Youngbae trudge through the door.

“Um,” says Seunghyun.

“Ah,” says Youngbae.

There’s an uncomfortable silence, in which Jiyong’s eyebrows climb up into his fringe and Daesung’s eyes bounce back and forth between them. Seungri is the first to break it, of course. “You guys look like you either had a fight or had sex.” He pauses. “Or both.”

Both of them break out in shocked remonstrations. “The hell, Seungri?!” “What the—none of those!” Seunghyun has a sudden and very strong urge to give Seungri a Bat-Bogey Hex or two.

Youngbae takes a deep breath. “Nothing happened. I just came to the conclusion that Seunghyun-hyung’s probably right… not everyone’s cut out for flying.” He looks at no one, then at his feet, then turns and walks out.

Seunghyun sits down heavily and pulls his own Transfiguration homework towards him. He’s barely picked up his quill, though, when it’s snatched out of his hand.

“So, what actually happened? Spill,” demands Jiyong, holding his quill out of reach. Daesung and Seungri shuffle closer with eager faces. Seunghyun hesitates, but he’s really got to do his homework tonight if he wants to avoid the wrath of Professor McGonagall, so—

“—ah, hyung,” Daesung says, wiping his eyes, “maybe I should teach you, I for one wouldn’t give in to your seductive charm,” and then he ducks Seunghyun’s outstretched arm, which sails into Jiyong’s chest instead—who squawks and throws a rolled-up ball of parchment at him. Seunghyun retaliates with an ink bottle that Jiyong swiftly dodges, and the fight is on, Seungri whooping and Daesung cackling, ink dripping off his face.

 

Almost forty-eight hours later, blood is dripping off Daesung’s face.

“I am so, so sorry.” Seunghyun thinks if he cringes any more he might start to resemble a house-elf, but he can’t help it.

“Id’s oday, hyung, I doe you didn’t mean id,” Daesung says thickly, holding a pack over his nose while they wait in the hospital wing. “You’re always daying dat by nose is doo big, anyway.”

“Stop trying to make me laugh. I’m feeling terrible here,” mutters Seunghyun.

Daesung had made good on his word to give Seunghyun a flying lesson, and despite spending the first half hour trying (and failing) to get off the ground, Seunghyun had almost been enjoying himself. Horsing around with Daesung never failed to be great fun, even when brooms were involved. That is, until he somehow managed to whack Daesung in the nose with the handle of said broom—not terribly hard, but Seunghyun had felt awful, and thought that he should fix what he had caused.

Note to self: never sneeze in the middle of saying ‘episkey’.

“I said, id’s okay,” Daesung insists, as Seunghyun buries his head in his arms once more. “Doe hard beelings. Us Hubblepubbs always hab each udder’s back, hyung.”

 

“And then there were two,” Seunghyun quips, with a wry smile. “Please don’t tell me you’re planning to teach me, I would rather not alienate or cripple the remaining friends I have.”

There’s a pause.

“Well, I think I might have a fair shot—“

“No, Seungri,” both Seunghyun and Jiyong say in unison.

“Fine,” Seungri mutters sulkily. “It’s just Jiyong-hyung left then.”

Seunghyun glances at Jiyong, who looks rather blank, and despite his earlier words, Seunghyun can’t help a wave of disappointment. He attempts to quash it, saying quickly, “Seriously, no need. I think I should give up on this whole flying lark anyway. I’m just not cut out for it.”

“No one’s ever ‘cut out’ for anything,” Jiyong says, suddenly sharp. “If you want it, you work hard for it. If you don’t, then you don’t. There’s no such thing as being able to do something well without trying.”

Seunghyun feels the way he did when the Potions master demonstrated the effects of a Shrinking Solution on him to the class, only now it’s Jiyong giving it to him, and that makes it ten times worse.

“Why did you want to start flying, anyway?” Seungri asks curiously. “You seem a lot happier with, like, wizard chess than you do on a broom.”

_Because Youngbae was an overenthusiastic busybody? Because when you guys walk outside with your brooms thrown over your shoulders, I wanted to go with you?_

“Because honestly, I do want to be able to fly—I think it’s cool. I think people who fly are much cooler than those who play wizard chess.” Seunghyun realizes it’s true even as the words come out haltingly. “That’s it really. Pretty stupid reason, I know.”

There’s a pause. Jiyong gives him a measured look before he says, “Tomorrow, 3’o’clock, at the Quidditch pitch. Don’t be late.”

He gathers his books into his arms and sweeps out, leaving Seunghyun coming to terms with what just happened.

“I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, hyung,” says Seungri.

“Out of the cauldron and into the fire,” Seunghyun says gloomily, his stomach already rolling in anticipation.

 

 

Once again, Seunghyun doesn’t sleep well the night before his lesson. The morning dawns cool and misty, in direct contrast to the state of his nerves as he gets dressed. While walking to the pitch, however, a blanket of almost calm resignation settles over his jittery thoughts. Perhaps his subconscious knows that he does not want to lose his cool (or at least, whatever’s left of it) in front of Jiyong, who’s already zooming around the grounds when he arrives. Seunghyun shades his eyes with his hand as Jiyong glides back down to earth, skimming the tops of the grassblades with his toes before coming to a stop.

“Do you really want to do this, hyung?” asks Jiyong seriously, looking up at him, and how is it that Seunghyun’s intimidated by someone who stands almost a head shorter than him? But he knows the answer. He’s known it all along. “Yes,” he responds, firmly, and Jiyong nods once, as though he’s satisfied.

Seunghyun mounts his broom, trying to remember Youngbae and Daesung’s previous instructions. Jiyong rearranges Seunghyun’s hands on his broom like Youngbae had, and demonstrates how to kick off. He watches Seunghyun’s pitiful attempts to leave the ground for a few minutes, before clicking his tongue and mounting his own broom.

“Imagine you’re shooting into space,” he says, before he turns into a blur that materializes itself into a Jiyong-shaped silhouette against the pale sky. Seunghyun gulps, still on the ground.

“Come on, hyung! The view’s amazing from up here!” Jiyong shrieks as he circles high above.

As usual, Seunghyun freezes. But something about that moment—the sight of Jiyong waving at him encouragingly, a sudden rush of determination, _just shoot into space and join him up there!_ —somehow it all melds together—and he’s kicking off from the ground. The wind whips at his ears as he climbs higher, keeping his eyes on Jiyong’s face as a target. He doesn’t look down at the ground once.

“See? You did it! You’re flying!” Jiyong is beaming widely as Seunghyun draws near, veering slightly, and Seunghyun feels as though he swallowed a Fizzing Whizzbee down the wrong way. It’s not an unpleasant sensation.

“How do you feel?” Jiyong asks, as Seunghyun manages to hover wobbily near him.

“Good,” he replies, though it comes out as a croak. His hands are numb and trembling as they clutch his broom, but it’s more elation than fear this time. Feeling daring, Seunghyun sneaks a peek down at the ground. It’s much further away than the time he flew up with Youngbae, but before his head can start to swim, he’s distracted by Jiyong whooping loudly in his ear as he streaks past. Somehow Seunghyun works himself up from hurried glances to longer looks downwards, and it’s not so bad really, if he squints his eyes and pretends he’s looking at a map. It’s not so bad at all.

Seunghyun bungles his landing when they finally make it back down, which Jiyong finds hilarious, but he doesn’t mind a bit. He talks excitedly at Jiyong all the way back to the castle, trying to express something of what he felt, how up in the air everything looked more clear, more vivid, like the first time Seunghyun saw a magic photograph, and then later wondered how he could have ever been satisfied with the lack of motion in Muggle photos.

“You gonna join me and Youngbae tomorrow, then?” says Jiyong, when they reach the door.

Seunghyun falters slightly. “Er, I wouldn’t mind, but, I don’t know if I’m ready to keep up with you guys just yet—”

“It wasn’t a question.”

It’s hard to see Jiyong’s face in the shadows of the entrance hall, but Seunghyun decides that he’s not joking. There’s only one way to respond to that. “Then you’d better watch out before I broomstick-whip both of your asses.”

Jiyong moves into a patch of light, and his eyes are twinkling slits. “You fly like a newborn Hippogriff, by the way.”

“I’d make an awesome Hippogriff.”

“I believe you.”

And this time, Seunghyun does, too.


End file.
